Sunrise
by carlaisnt
Summary: Matt and Julie on the morning after graduation.


It's almost five am on the morning after graduation and Julie is one of the only people still awake at Marc Garcia's lake house. Years ago she swore she'd never date a football player, but there was Matt, and then it wasn't really so hard to say she'd go to the party with Bryan, number Forty Six, with all that blonde hair and sweet green eyes. Of course now he's passed out on a couch somewhere, where he's been since around two thirty. Tyra and Tim left with Landry and Jean about an hour ago and she's been sitting on the porch steps since they said goodbye. It's quiet, not eerily, but calmly so, and she stares out at the waxing tide with a soft smile on her face.

She hears footsteps first, quiet but steady and then suddenly hesitant on the creaking wood floors. She knows his gait, knows exactly how he changes pace in different situations and she knows that he's seen her, knows that he's nervous to talk to her. After all this time, he still unnerves her, too. They haven't spoken in so many months, not since he started drinking everyday and she accused him of sabotaging the team to satisfy his own personal shortcomings. He got his act together after that, but still, they haven't spoken. But since her friendship with Landry grew, she couldn't avoid hearing about him and was secretly proud of the small role she played in his successes. She can hear his feet pause a little ways behind her, but she doesn't turn around. Eventually he comes up beside her, sliding down in that slow, careful way of his to rest on the step next to her.

"So, did you have fun tonight?" Matt asks, trying much too hard to be casual. She turns her head thirty degrees to the left, just enough to look him in the eye, before replying.

"Yeah, it was good. I love dancing, so that was great. God, I can't believe we actually graduated!" He nods, a small smile on his face.

"It's weird, right? This is probably the last time all of us will be in the same place at the same time. I heard you're going to Chicago?" Her face brightens in child-like excitement and he smiles at this.

"Evanston, yeah! Northwestern. Dad says you're gonna play for Rice. That's amazing, congratulations."

"Well, I'm gonna try. Should be good though, they've got a great program and it's a good school too. Grandma's gonna have to live in a home though, so."

"Oh. How's she doing?"

"She's alright, you know, the same." He sighs. "Actually, I wanted to say, um, thank you. You know, for last year? I was…I was just a mess and you and Coach, you really snapped me out of it. I don't know what would have happened if you guys hadn't been there. Really, thank you."

"Matt. You're welcome. I know that, well, we haven't been on the best of terms lately, but I want to, to try and be friends with you. I'm really sorry, about everything that happened that summer, but, um, if you want, we could like, maybe hang out over summer? I just, I don't want to go away to school and have things hanging over my head. Like, what could have happened? I just want to make it up to you, and hang out like we used to. Um, not entirely like we used to, I guess, but you know what I mean, right? But, um, really, only if you want to." She peeks over at him, embarrassed at her lengthy outburst, but he's grinning at her, his shoulders shaking in repressed laughter.

"Sure, Julie. I'd like that." He laughs out loud.

"Hey, friends aren't supposed to laugh at each other!" The pink on her cheeks deepens.

"Oh, I'm laughing _with_ you, not at you!"

"Yeah, right." She punches him softly on the shoulder.

"Ouch!" he feigns pain, rubbing his shoulder in circles. She shakes her head at him in mock disapproval, but the light catches her eye and she turns to look towards the lake.

"Hey, look! The sun's coming up. I don't remember the last time I was up for sunrise. God, it's beautiful." Matt drags his eyes away from her face and glances at the sun peeking up over the horizon. He turns to look back at Julie, her eyes focused completely on the view ahead of her.

"Sure is."


End file.
